Fairhope, Alabama

About 15 miles northeast of us lies the city of Fairhope.  On the shores of Mobile Bay, Fairhope is a city of about  16 thousand people.  The city was founded in 1894 as a Utopian experiment.  Upton Sinclair (remember The Jungle about the deplorable state of the meat packing industry ?) used to winter here as did many other notables.  Fannie Flagg (if you don't know who she is, you're too young) and Jimmy Buffett are said to be from the area.

We spent a cloudy and rain-threatening  morning on its shore at the municipal pier.  The pier reaches about 0.25 miles into the bay and offers marina space, fishing from its concrete deck,  a seafood restaurant at mid-pier and other amenities:

 The pier was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  It was rebuilt and opened again in 2006.  While we were there, there were several fisherman trying to reel the big one from the waters.

One of the more interesting things to watch on the pier were the vast array of water birds doing their thing.  Here is a pelican with a bevy of small friends resting after a hard morning of  doing whatever they do:

The entrance to the pier offers a rose garden with fountain.  The roses were in prime or just past. 

AND as an extra added attraction was a statue of some old guy glued to the fountain wall:

If you would like to see a live shot of the pier, here is a web cam (be sure to take control of the camera and see the area):  webcam.  Note that sometimes the web camera seems to take a break and won't show.  Keep trying if you are interested.

We had a good time in the fair city of Fairhope.